Obama Swaps 5 Gitmo Detainees for 1 U.S. Soldier

Five Afghan detainees at Guantanamo have been traded for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier being held in Afghanistan. The detainees were delivered to the Government of Quatar in Cuba, while U.S. commandos picked up the soldier in Afghanistan. Quatar was instrumental in the negotiations.

The White House says the detainees were members of the Taliban, not al Qaeda. All five have been held at Gitmo since 2002.

"They were released as a result of indirect contacts by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the United States, and with the help of the Qatar government they have joined their families in Qatar," the Taliban statement continued.

Qatar has said the released detainees will remain in Qatar for a year.

There are now 149 detainees remaining at Guantanamo. It's long past time to send them home as well.

define you MT. I am reminded of when you first showed up supposedly commenting while hanging outside Bush's vacation spot because he wouldn't meet with... what was her name?? I mean after the Left was done with her she was dropped into obscurity... for a second time.

Are showing everyone what you are really about. Do you even realize that I wonder. No,probably not. But you know what ? This guy from Red State does--

Democratic, liberal, and progressive partisans will freak. That particularly smarmy freaking that the more obnoxious examples do when they think that they've got the moral drop on you.

At least he is smart enough to know the score. WE DO have the "moral drop on you" . This is called circle the wagons and cover your ass they have totally caught us with our pants down.
If it wasn't so pathetic it would actually be funny.

At Bush's ranch Jim outside of that small group of Gold Star families? One father, who had lost a son had a long military career himself as an Army Ranger too. So you do realize there were four Gold Star families there though right? I digress

Why did the rest of us go?

Because Bush said he was going to arrest Iraq War protesters, so others joined because that notion runs counter to everything this country stands for....arresting war protesters.

And nobody was arrested, he tested the citizens and found himself wanting, and that weekend thousands of people drove to no place Texas to make sure the Bushies got it. There would be no arrest of war protesters.

The only thing that ends wars driven by neo- cons are war protesters. Without protesters, soldiers are nothing more than meat for grinders. It is a check in the check and balance scheme of things. It is the voice of the people. It is the voice of those the military serves.

You weren't going to drive my family off a cliff though and ignore the American people Jim.

Yes terrorists, after letting your guys rot in prison for 11 years we may eventually trade a few of them to a neutral country for a year in which we will watch them and drone kill them if they step out of line - for one American POW - not hostage. Have at it if that is what you were waiting for to motivate you to take American hostages.

very glad that our American soldier was released, and that five of the poor souls languishing in Gitmo for 12 years were also sent home.

But this comment by Mr. Obama,

"The United States of America does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind..."

gives me the willies.

The US traditionally treats its soldiers and especially its veterans with varying degrees of contempt in my opinion. For returning vets, the lack of medical treatment has been a scandal for decades. Once in awhile the country takes notice, and then things slip back into the obscurity of indifference.

So, yes. I am glad that this swap of prisoners was negotiated - and I will give credit to Mr. Obama if he is the one who actually engineered this - but I would never generalize into saying that we actually care about our men and women in uniform.

...and that five of the poor souls languishing in Gitmo for 12 years were also sent home.

It is said that you are known by the people you associate with.

Perhaps you wish to withdraw your approval.

--Abdul Haq Wasiq, who served as the Taliban deputy minister of intelligence

--Mullah Norullah Nori, a senior Taliban commander in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when the Taliban fought U.S. forces in late 2001

--Khairullah Khairkhwa, who served in various Taliban positions including interior minister and had direct ties to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden

--Mohammed Nabi, who served as chief of security for the Taliban in Qalat, Afghanistan, and later worked as a radio operator for the Taliban's communications office in Kabul

--Mohammad Fazl, whom Human Rights Watch says could be prosecuted for war crimes for presiding over the mass killing of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 as the Taliban sought to consolidate their control over the country.

-Mohammad Fazl, whom Human Rights Watch says could be prosecuted for war crimes for presiding over the mass killing of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 as the Taliban sought to consolidate their control over the country.

If he could have been prosecuted for war crimes, why in the twelve years he was detained were charges not brought against him?

Why must we always set up this dynamic involving the term "hero?" I understand heroic actions and behavior, but I don't think wearing a uniform automatically makes someone a hero. I have a nephew in basic training at Parris Island: he's not a hero. He's a 19 yr old kid who wants to learn to be a mechanic, who isn't cut out for college, doesn't want a minimum wage job and can't afford to move out of mom and dad's house. Maybe one day he'll do something heroic, but he's not there yet.

I don't know - I'm not sure anyone does - what the whole story is on Bowe Bergdahl, but what's really turning my stomach is that somehow whatever he's suffered at the hands of his captors isn't payment enough for whatever it is he's alleged to have done to get himself captured or for the lives lost looking for him. We don't even know, at this point, what was done to him, what damages he's sustained, and yet the calls for the US to punish him are getting louder.

I hate the media. I hate the way they play these stories and the emotion attached to them. I hate that the bloodthirsty slavering of war-mongering politicians keeps being treated as normal and good and credible.

It's a big world, squeaky, much larger than just what gets said here on TL.

I briefly considered making the effort to - once again - correct the conclusions to which you leaped and deal with your attempts to put words in my mouth and thoughts in my head, but I'm not in the mood to engage with people who raise being deliberately obtuse to an art form.

Or with people who apparently lie in wait to pounce on my comments; it's more than a little creepy.

Your comment starts off as having read the comments in the thread, where there is zero reference to hero dynamic. And then after you

pick up a little of the coverage of the exchange.

you make bold sweeping statements like this:

Why must we always set up this dynamic involving the term "hero?"

Has your limited reading of the exchange been to right wing sites?

Because it has zero to do with the thread and considering that you have read a little coverage of the exchange, why would you make such a broad generalization as if you have uncovered some universal truth?

Pretensions to say the least, and giving thrift to idiots who are not mainstream, imo.

I find you creepy, okay? I find it creepy that I haven't posted anything since Saturday, and bingo-bango, as soon as I do, there you are.

And you have nothing thoughtful or engaging to say in that comment, you just want to take my words and make them into something else and then provide some off-the-wall musing for why I said something you haven't even read correctly so you can draw a negative conclusion about me.

Creepy. And you've done it again. Which is why it's so freakin' pointless to even try to engage. You're not interested in discussion with me, you're interested in discussion with what you need me to be so you can be whatever it is you're going for. I find it creepy.

Does this sound like the opinion of someone who is giving credibility to the right wing?

I hate the media. I hate the way they play these stories and the emotion attached to them. I hate that the bloodthirsty slavering of war-mongering politicians keeps being treated as normal and good and credible.

One wing nut commenter brings up allegations that Bergdahl went AWOL :

But lets not pretend this guy was a model soldier. It is time for you to admit he is not a poster boy.

First off, poster boy and model soldier have zero to do with being a hero. Both terms in this context refer to a soldier who follows orders and never strays from his or her duty. Hardly anything to do with the heroic.

And one poster, who certainly did not come close to suggesting that Obama or anyone thinks of Bergdal as a hero, gets transformed to the collective conscious of all TL or the world, or TL and the world according to Anne:

Why must we always set up this dynamic involving the term "hero?"

Sorry CaptHowdy, Anne is not speaking for me, nor the wing nuts who comment on this site... jeeeez even ppj did not go there.

As far as I can tell the only mention of hero is by disgruntled soldiers who are either Obama haters or irate that Berghdal was freed.

You are full of it. Nearly ever story I have seen or read about this has included at some point that question, hero or deserter. It is clear to everyone but you apparently this is the media meme.
You have a habit of jumping Ito things, this, the price of MoCap software, of the subject of the day when you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

Anne is absolutely right. And I am not usually the one to say that.
Now
Fell free to indulge your neurotic compulsion to have the last word. I'm done,
.
But I wouldn't go to pretentious if I was you.

The issue is about Obama, Berghahl is a bit player in the firestorm. Even though Obama is freeing the last remaining soldier in Afghanistan, his detractors are suggesting that Obama is a muslim sympathizer because Bergdahl loved the Taliban.

That is the story. The issue about whether a captured soldier needs to be a hero in order to be saved is not part of this dialogue.

At best, if you want to make this about Berghal, the story is about whether someone who some alleged went AWOL, deserves to have been traded for 5 taliban from gitmo. '

Hero dynamics is not the issue, despite how the wingnuts want to frame the discussion, imo

have to be framed in terms of "hero" was not meant to legitimize the efforts of the right-wing and the media to make it part of the discussion, it was meant to do just the opposite.

In other words, I was saying it should not be part of the discussion; I was irritated at the direction of the discussion. I actually think most people got that, and did not take it as being support for the right-wing nonsense.

Like it or not, the issues surrounding Bergdahl were part of the discussion here. As was the question of whether Obama should have made the exchange. You're awfully quick to tell me what should and shouldn't be part of the discussion, but I don't see much from you in this thread that is on the point you say the rest of us should be on. Perhaps, if what you want is a substantive discussion on specific points that you've decided are appropriate, you should provide some; to chastise me for responding to the content of an ongoing discussion seems...petty.

The first of these problems is the legal swamp that is the War on Terror, and the particularly murky moral and legal zone that is the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. But for the cowardice of Congress, all the prisoners at Guantanamo should have been transferred into stateside prisons and tried for their crimes or released. That would have eliminated many of the legal issues involved in the exchange.

The second is a political question. The GOP has become such a nearly nihilistic obstructionist force that even if the Obama Administration hadn't needed to act so quickly to secure the transfer, giving the House 30 days notice would have been turned into a carnival for political gain in advance of the midterm elections, and likely would have blown the potential deal.

The third is a matter of government secrets. Partially because of the political problem and partially due to an overweening security state, not nearly enough members of Congress are adequately briefed on nearly enough national security secrets. That in turn leads to an inability by the legislative branch to fully hold the national security deep state accountable for wrongdoing, as well as mutual distrust between the branches.

It is highly unlikely that the Obama Administration released men who still posed extremely strong risks to U.S. interests. But without sharing that information with Congress and the American people, and without knowledge of how detainment at Guantanamo has affected the specific prisoners involved, that's an impossible question for the lay pundit to answer.

In the end there's no one to trust. It's bad policy on the merits to simply trust the Executive Branch on its own say-so. But the GOP has been such a bad faith actor that its objections can hardly be seen as more than political gamesmanship--particularly from the same party that idolizes a president who secretly traded missiles to Iran for hostages.

It's probably not to your liking either, because it's more nuanced than the discussion you've declared we're supposed to be having and it isn't sufficiently praising of Obama's actions.

Simply taking issue with your framing of the issue. And I am certainly not accusing you of supporting right wing nonsense, intentionally. What I am pointing out is the question:

Why must we always set up this dynamic involving the term "hero?"

Is playing into wingnuttia's framing. No one has called Bergdahl a hero. To engage in the question is foolish and gives shrift to right wing framing. Patriot nation and the Jake Tapper's parroting of them saying that Bergdahl is not a hero is a rhetorical trap.

And, even though our wingnutters here are parroting the allegations by patriot nation that Bergdahl is a deserter, no one here has brought up the hero dynamic.

It is different to argue that Berghdahl broke the rules and deserved to be a Taliban prisoner, than to argue that only heroes deserve to be rescued.

The wingers her are arguing, or at best questioning, whether Bergdahl deserved to be rescued because of his alleged AWOL.

And how many discussions about the source of that name int these threads that is would miss the point--

Pazuzu is a fictional character and the main antagonist in The Exorcist horror novels and film series, created by William Peter Blatty. Blatty derived the character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, where Pazuzu was considered the king of the demons of the wind, and the son of the god Hanbi. In The Exorcist Pazuzu appears as a demon who possesses Regan MacNeil.
The majority of the film deals with Regan's demonic possession by a being she initially refers to as "Captain Howdy."

(1) The war in Afghanistan is officially winding down, and those five prisoners -- who were Taliban, and not al Qa'eda -- would have had to be released at its conclusion anyway. To not do so would constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

(2) The practice of prisoner exchanges are almost as old as the so-called "art of war" itself. In earlier times, the practice was to parole prisoners of war after their capture / surrender and send them home (which the Americans did to British soldiers at Saratoga in 1778), with the admonition that they were not to return to battle -- because if they did and were captured again, that was grounds for their summary execution.

(3) Abraham Lincoln was arguably the first leader in modern times to refuse to engage in prisoner exchanges during wartime, because he knew that the large numbers of Union prisoners in Confederate hands were proving an increasing burden upon the beleaguered and starving rebels. The resultant treatment of prisoners on both sides in the Civil War was an abomination, and responsibility for the horrors of Andersonville could just as easily be laid at the feet of Lincoln as it was at those of the camp's commander, Confederate Col. Henry Wirz, who was later executed for war crimes. Conditions at Camp Douglas, where rebel prisoners were held outside Chicago, was just as bad as Andersonville.

(3) The wingbats who are carping about this particular exchange have very short memories, especially when it comes to Republican presidents who negotiated for the release of American prisoners / hostages. The Iran-Contra scandal -- the genesis of which was the attempt by the Reagan administration to negotiate the release of American captives held in Beirut, Lebanon -- comes immediately and specifically to mind.

you rightly make the point that the Sgt. was a POW, not a hostage. Captured on the battlefield. An example of a hostage situation, would be the Reagan Administration's secret facilitation of the sale of arms to Iran (under an arms embargo) and using the proceeds from the overpriced arms sale to fund, against the Boland Amendment, the Nicaraguan contras.

think of it as progress: we seem to be going from the Sgt. being a deserter to being AWOL, or maybe just using an unauthorized latrine or using it for unauthorized purposes such as a sampling of the newest Aghan cash crop. If I have haven't helped you, please check with Rush for further clarification.

I said he was not "standing tall and looking good" and you asked me why.

It is time for you to admit he is not a poster boy. He left his base without permission and was wandering around in a dangerous area. This is not something a good soldier would do. He shipped his uniforms home just before he left his base. He put his fellow soldiers at risk when they tried to locate and rescue him. He seems to have made multiple bad decisions during his time in service.

None of this means he should be abandoned by the US, just that Obama was certainly aware of many questions about Bergdahl's past and still went ahead with releasing five bad guys (two wanted by the UN for war crimes) to get his release.

A famous football player before enlisting. Then discovering that he read all the time, tested out philosophies, and wrote home disillusioned would have to be proven to your wingnutty forgetful nugget over and over and over again, and you wouldn't have dreamed of painting him in broad blackening strokes.

You do not know what he shipped home and why and I doubt his parents understood. During that time of deploying to Afghanistan, the clothing you were issued was just insane because they experience full seasons there. He could have shipped home his winter versions because he layered his clothing, and they had all sorts of crazy layering items too. My husband leaves behind everything he is issued that he isn't going to use because you have to drag it all around with you in a war zone. It is actually a hindrance. YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT HE SENT HOME AND WHY AND OBVIOUSLY HIS FATHER WOULD NOT KNOW EITHER. He had a uniform on him...duh. And the military doesn't want its clothing back anymore that soldiers are issued for deployment. The stuff is his forever.

God you are so clueless.

And his unit was complete mess, just a shambles of leadership failure. Apparently they didn't know their arse from an elbow.

Our very own North Korean gulag is a disgrace to this nation, at least according to all the brave soldiers I know through my brother. But what the hell, they're just some of the best and brightest, I bet they're just children who don't have a clue.

It's like drone murders. Stupid and murderously counterproductive beyond all reason. You have a habit of trusting the military far more than you trust the government. Please reconcile those positions for me. Because, you know, we DO have civilian control of the military here, or we're supposed to. Are you going to claim that we really don't have civilian control of the military, that military brass actually run the whole show, and that this is why the military is right to you more often than not? Because rhetorically that's your only out, my friend.

is nothing new. In fact, as the Editor of the New Yorker just observed on ABC's "This Week" in the roundtable: Israel has used trades to bring back its own, and--in so doing--released known criminals/murderers. The fierce response against President Obama taking this very practical measure, especially in light of the ongoing drawdown in Afghanistan, is somewhat surprising ... given the alternatives (e.g., a new military intervention), the trade in this situation was the logistically responsible and morally correct action to take.

There is one obvious safer American...the occupying soldier released from captivity in the swap.

Now I don't think those 5 guys released are any threat to me, or the entire Eastern front from Maine to Florida...but if they are I'll gladly accept any risk to free a prisoner of occupation. Least we can do after we screwed the poor guy by deploying him to occupy a foreign country to risk his life for no good reason...no? Sh#t I woulda traded the entire buck fifty souls just to close Gitmo...closing that b#tch and never opening another gulag will make us all safer in the long run, as would other changes in our aggressive foreign policy.

The gitmo experience is a fate worse than death in my book...you may disagree.

I'm not convinced the prisoners are our enemies at all...or if by our actions we made enemies out of them aka drew first blood by invading Afghanistan. Unless you have some evidence these 5 dudes, or the other 150 were directly involved in the crimes committed on 9/11/01. You take too much on faith imo Jimbo.

as WWII ended? If your idea is to hold them ad infinitum as we bring this 13 year war in Afghanistan to an end, perhaps you should say so. If your real point is the war there should not end, perhaps you should say so. (And: even from a one-time Repub viewpoint, ala Reagan and Iran/contra, what would Reagan do? Per Molly Bloom's reminder.)

And, you know it, Jim. Regular German soldiers constituted most of the POWs ... not the top, not the elite. What happened to most of the German POWs (those not the elite leaders)?

My question is straightforward; my question also naturally followed your assertions relating to dire things in store from arranging a trade ... as if that has not happened in the world any number of times. And, my question regarding Reagan is an obvious one ... you surely understand that.

Look, if you want to play all manner of games, I cannot stop you. If you want to have an honest conversation ... well, that is really up to you. While I think that a number of precedents are available (and a few referred to here), it is possible that you could and would address any distinctions from the Reagan era Iran/Contra or the release of German POWs at the conclusion of WWII or the occasional trades by the acknowledged tough negotiators leading Israel. As for me, I'm just about always open to discussion when the other person is evidencing honesty, integrity of position; but, I close that door when the challenge evidences dishonesty. Are you willing to do something other here than lob net balls?

Germany was destroyed. The war was over. The average German soldier was just a soldier and just wanted to go home. The "leaders" were tried and some executed.

Have we executed any one at GITMO????

And the lessor "leaders" spent some time in prison. But when released they were no threat.

Look, you cannot compare WWII to the war against the west that the Muslim terrorist is fighting now.

But, if you want to bring WWII up, I remember that Hitler spelled it all out in a book called "Mien Kampf." Of course no one paid any attention and millions died.

Well bin Ladin said this in his 3/97 interview with Peter Arnett, then with CNN:

REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, will the end of the United States' presence in Saudi Arabia, their withdrawal, will that end your call for jihad against the United States and against the US ?

BIN LADIN:.... So, the driving-away jihad against the US does not stop with its withdrawal from the Arabian peninsula, but rather it must desist from aggressive intervention against Muslims in the whole world.

well if you believe that then you have to believe that George W. Bush was an absolute moron for disbanding the terrorism committee that was in the White House.

But of course when Bill Clinton was chasing him they were screaming wag the dog at the top of their lungs. Thanks for reminding us why Americans should never trust the GOP with foreign policy ever again.

Facts and truth are much harder to deal with than debunked, winger fairy tales, huh, Jim? Explains why you never post links to your Benghazi claims that have been debunked by actual news organizations too many times to count. C'mon Jim! At least give us a good laugh by linking to wherever you get this silly stuff - NewsMax, Rush, Drudge, Faux News ...

I don't know how many times you have written, "Obama lied and men died."

You are clearly mocking the phrase "Bush lied and men died." But you do not know what you are talking about. The Bush lies led to the death of many. Even assuming Obama lied, you Fox folks are talking about a supposed lie after the fact.

Bottom line: Your talking point makes no sense.

And you are all about talking points, spouted without thought or explanation.

You do not add new facts, new ideas, or reasoned discussion. You only offend here. You are better suited to right wing sites.....

"unanswered questions," why would you assume the worst or assume that the circumstances evidence anything less than honorable? Why would you assume, without more, the worst of this soldier? Has there been an investigation or any fact-gathering that would lead anyone to that conclusion?

To go off alone to take a dump Jim. Pretty sure you know that in the military you are supposed to dig a hole and go right there in front of everyone when outside the wire. One of the less appetizing things about soldiering. But I'm certain he isn't the only soldier who just wanted to a nice quiet BEEP alone for once. I'm pretty sure nobody is going to throw a book at him.

Remember the yahoos who were captured in Bosnia just drivin around without a sense of direction?

You wingers need to calm down about this kid though before someone punches your lights out. You're just Pi$$ed because the Kenyan Usurper gets credit for getting him returned home.

Get your feelings straight before you go out in public talking trash though or you could need a steak for that eye.

you though Jim and the other person here and maybe some of the GOP elite seem to be the ones whining. Most of my friends who have military service feel the same way you do Tracy--he's home and that is all that matters and yes, POWs have been traded since time immemorial.

It is not clear to me that he deserted, but down to the gritty, I don't care. Too many years at war. Osama is dead, his friends..gone too. Nobody in Afghanistan wants to see us back there ever again except maybe one crazy loon, and there is always one crazy loon. I live next door to one.

Let's go home and take care of our soldiers who made it home.

Time for new chapters, I'm ready for beginnings. My psyche has already departed Afghanistan.

I understand that he traveled to Europe on his own in his teens, did all sorts trailblazing type things. He just blazed a trail to take dump. If it was a makeshift latrine, maybe other soldiers were using it too. Maybe they just wanted one moment of peace ....you don't know.

They are not going to court-martial him Jim, not happening. And you're broken for even putting it out there that it is on the schedule. Even jumping to that conclusion in public could get your teeth knocked out. Before you are going to even lightly smear a POW you had better be real certain.

When do we court-martial Dubya for desertion? We have so much more evidence in his case!

I can't even believe you used to wear a uniform you're so inhumane to your own people, forget how you would be to other people in a war zone. Just chilling, you're like a war crime looking for a place to happen. The VA was harming the new vets from Iraq and Afghanistan and all you care about is that they met and meet your needs. Something is wrong with you. Something inside of you is horribly broken, beyond repair.

And, one thing we all honestly know that ragebot is: A politico ... a politico hack who doesn't identify openly as the partisan he is; but, whose every word shows it. Like you, I find his eager willingness to kick this soldier in the face based upon nothing more than narrowly based Swiftboat-type rumor to be contemptuous. In these moments that should be joyful for a returning soldier, his friends & family, we should be able to set aside the political drive for a little while.

Article was his squad leader who was demoted when photographs were published in the Guardian that showed a complete breakdown of their units discipline? What did someone say around here earlier today....something about not exactly a model soldier or something?

Such is the zero tolerance policy on the left for criticism of Obama that isn't done by the left.

The knee jerk defense of Obama on here is funny sometimes.

I have no idea the details of this. What is obvious is we traded 5 highly dangerous men for a soldier who left base under questionable circumstances. Maybe he was just using the potty maybe he was a deserter or even a traitor as some suggest.

Maybe it was worth it, maybe it wasn't. We need to know more to make that call but some on here want to act as if the actions of the administration are unquestionable.

take offense at being questioned. The thing is the GOP is not questioning. They are screeching like Dick Cheney that we're all GONNA DIE because these particular people were traded.

You can only scream it's the end of the world so many times before people just flat out quit listening to you. Everytime something happens the GOP ratches up the hysteria one more notch until it has become so ridiculous they've become a parody of themselves.

Trading prisoners is routine. It's been done for a long, long time. And they are going to be watched. And usually prisoners that are traded are not so great but hey, at least Obama wasn't giving them arms was he?

The GOP has been piling on Obama since after he was in office six months. Of course, IMO he brought this on himself with his PPUS crap.

The GOP does not recognize any Democratic president as legitimate. They believe they are entitled to the presidency. Approval ratings have nothing to do with their wailing. See Clinton, Bill with 60-70 approval ratings.

to tell you this but he did serve with honor and distinction. I also hate to tell you this but pretty much anybody who is not court martialed gets in that category. It's a pretty generic description of even guys who are not the most outstanding soldiers.

people associate the term "hero" with "POW." Whether that came about because enduring the treatment POW's get is considered heroic, or whether they were captured under circumstances where they were performing some kind of heroic action, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many people who wouldn't make the association between "POW" and "hero."

So it isn't so much that anyone's claiming or assigning hero status to Bergdahl, rather that they are trying to get people to stop conflating those terms with him specifically; it's the only way to advocate for him to be appropriately punished by us if he was captured while deserting.

I don't know if that helps, but that's how I've been perceiving the situation.

And only speaking for me I have no interest in and have not written one word in defense of Obama. If a zero tolerance policy exists it is on the right. Zero tolerance for anything that could possibly on any conceivable level be seen as good that happens while Obama, of probably any democrat, is president.
Your 5highly dangerous men had all, every single one, been cleared by courts to be released when arrangements could be made. And in it of the hysteria from the right were considered pretty low level. There are 78 more prisoners there who have also been cleared if the administration can find a way to get past McCain and his flying monkeys.

I am not engaging in that ^^ anymore but would anyone interested in the question of Bergdahls hero status please click the google search link below and take a look at the dozens, hundreds? of headlines asking the question.
This is the point some of are trying to make. It is NOT wingnut framing there are headlines in that list from every political perspective asking the same question, hero or deserter/villan/traitor whatever.
To say no one is calling him a hero is just being intentionally obtuse. That is not the point or the question. The question is who cares. I was going to post headlines but there are simply too many. Better you look at the list yourself.

...your google search is as relevant to the discussion as this one. (Although admittedly I only got 91,500,000 hits and it took much longer (0.55 seconds). In other words, once again you ignored the substance of the conversation to argue with... yourself?

Are you arguing with fantasy Anne? Fantasy CaptHowdy? (Coming soon, fantasy sj?) Because you sure have not been talking about the same thing that they are. Who knows?

"Hero" is exactly how it was represented on the morning "news" magazine I had on this morning. They hadn't gotten to the deserter accusations yet. I'm pretty sure nobody except you is limiting the commentary on this matter to official Administration/military remarks.

Wev. It's so predictable the way you dumb down the comments of others so that you can make one of your even-more-boring-and-shrill-than-jim insulting screeds. And you aren't even insulting me.

Yet.

Anyway, there is a whole of lot of "scroll past it" that I should have done on this thread. I'm just glad the kid is coming home, and that there are five less people imprisoned indefinitely.

wingnuts? Because the articles I'm seeing at CNN, NBC News, The Hill, CBS News, International Business Times, all quote members of his unit.

Wingnut world is picking up on it, yes, but unless they're making up the people who are being quoted, I don't know how you can ignore that it is a topic of discussion all over the media - on the left and on the right - and the word "hero" is being used quite a bit to describe something Bergdahl isn't.

Let's be honest, okay? The ultimate goal for the right is to knock Obama for making the exchange, for releasing the terrorists into the world (people who are probably so broken the only people they scare are themselves). But how could they do that if Bergdahl really was a hero in every sense of the word? They're going after Bergdahl as one flank in the attack against Obama.

And the mainstream, useless as ever when it comes to pretty much everything, is going along.

I don't think we should be making people heroes or finding ways to make them cowards. I think the man is an American soldier, the only POW left, his country owes him something, as it does all soldiers in its command, so when the opportunity to bring him home presented itself, Obama took it. As he should have.

Just please, for the love of God, stop acting as if the only place the hero/deserter issue is coming up is in "wingnuttia."

the way you took your dishonest and insulting slur about me sideways without responding directly to me. And when I say "dishonest" I mean that literally. You are being dishonest either to yourself or to the rest of the world.

When you're not boring you're annoying. But in any case you are never surprising. At least not pleasantly so.

From reading the threads, this group is made up of a group of FAR RIGHT WING folks doing their mighty best to blame President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for making a decision to rescue Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan.

These folks are alleging Sgt. Bergdahl deserted his post and this action led to the deaths of these six soldiers. Upon reading the threads in this "group" it turns out that two of these soldiers were injured and died BEFORE the date this "Group" accused Sgt. Bergdahl of "deserting".

No charge of "deserting" has been verified by anyone in the U.S. Army Chain of Command including the President --- as Commander in Chief or the Secretary of Defense -- who coordinated Sgt. Bergdahl rescue.

This "group" as they managed to get a bit of Media attention on CNN based on a "Reporter Jake Tapper" who used a UNVERIFIED TWEET initially as a news story resource. Incredible right?

This is an blatant attempt by the far right wing to change the narrative from the rescue of this Solider and Prisoner of War -- into something else. [emphasis mine]

Many are flocking to social media, such as the Facebook page "Bowe Bergdahl is NOT a hero," where they share stories detailing their resentment. A number of comments on his battalion's Facebook page prompted the moderator to ask for more respect to be shown.

Had Tapper the decency to mention in his title something like

Fellow wing nut soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero, and the same soldiers call Obama a Muslim who is not a US citizen.

It would have changed the story, and pointed to the plot line, which has nothing to do with Bergdahl, and everything to do with Obama.

Went against policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Yes, there have been exceptions--although I don't recall any like this.

Will likely make US soldiers and citizens more vulnerable to taking by terrorists, for later trading.

Gave up way too much, 5 high value Taliban, for this "soldier".

Some of the 5 will likely get back into the fight, as soon as they, is my view (and that's supported by prior US assessment of them).

Some Afghan people are upset that the US thinks so little of them, that the US was willing to made this trade (and effectively release the 5).

Bergdahl was a deserter, or went AWOl. Left his gun/gear behind, left with a compass and knife, and had mailed much of his stuff to Idaho. About 6 soldiers were killed looking for him, according to press reports. Another soldier is now in a wheel chair. The Taliban knew the US would be looking and were ready for that, and the Taliban starting shelling the FOB.

Many in the US military are upset with the trade, including my son who was in a sister unit in Alaska. His friends spent the summer "eating rockets" and being attacked occasionally.
When Hagel announced the swap at Baghran/Afghanistan as a great development, his audience was completely silent.

Obama ignored the law on this type of release.

Hagel foolishly argued that the US wasn't negotiating with terrorists, because Qatar had been the intermediary negotiator.

I think polls will show the country is solidly against Obama's move.

While it's nice to get any American home, this was not the kid to give away the store for, in my view.